Retirement, day skipping and The Italian Job…

Sorry, it’s been ages! I’ve been revising for the Day Skipper theory exam. I *think* I may have bitten off more than I can chew!

Anyway, here’s a full run down of the last week or two:

– I’VE LEFT WORK!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I skipped out of the office last Wednesday to the pub for my leaving do which was great, lots of people came. They’d done an excellent job of decorating the bit of the pub where we were – Italian flag bunting and lots of print outs of embarrassing photo’s of me over the last few years up on the wall. Had a load of presents – a great sailing book “The Sailing Bible” published by Adlard Coles Nautical, some lovely jewellery, and a few silly pressies – a boat for the bath, some polenta (I’d never heard of it much to the amusement of my boss a year or two back), some wine (did YOU know most people can’t tell the difference between red and white when it’s the same temperature? My ex boss insists he’s a wine connoisseur) etc.

– Day Skipper: Here are my lessons learnt for people wishing to undertake a Day Skipper course: Don’t think for one minute that you’ll be able to read a book and for it to make any sense at all unless you’ve spent years sailing. When you look up a word in the glossary, even the words to describe the word you’re looking up don’t make sense. And it’s impossible to even look up half of it – there’s a raft (haha, raft, boat, haha) of stock phrases that are used; what on earth is “going about”?!?!?! I think it means “turn around”. It might not. It could be “have a constitutional walk around the boat”. Who knows? The theory exams are this weekend – the chartwork one on Saturday and the general one on Sunday. I’ll undoubtedly fail. Then on the Sunday night, I’m going to be on the boat until Friday for the practical course. I think it will be C.O.L.D.

– Retirement ( at least “retirement” from a mundane 9-5 office job) is not all that I was hoping it would be. Assuming I’d had any free time this week, I think I would have been annoyed at the lack of people to go out with. Texting ex-work mates to tell them I’m having a nap whilst they’re at work has indeed been entertaining, but I worry that it wont be enough to keep me entertained for the months/years ahead. I would prefer “retirement” if everyone else I liked was also retired. AND now I’m in Pompey direction again, people have been going out without me! IMAGINE! WITHOUT ME!!! Honestly. I don’t know what that’s about. There should be rules against it. They should be at home crying. Not having fun.

– I’VE BOOKED A FLIGHT! I go Saturday 4th May from London Stanstead and get into Ancona about 9.45pm where I hope someone from the language school will come and get me. Having said that, it’s with Ryanair and I’ll of course arrive several hours late probably with no belongings and dishevelled (presumably because I inadvertently missed out on ticking the “don’t mug me” check box along with the “don’t buy an extortionate Ryanair mobile phone” and the “don’t buy an expensive Ryanair suitcase”). I’ll be in a single room in a shared apartment. I start my Italian language course on the Monday after a meal out the night before and I’m booked in for a month – that’s 80 lessons. There’s a test I need to do so they can tell which group to put me in – it’s written in Italian – it would have been a doddle a couple of weeks ago but my head’s all about the “going about”.

– The flat rental seems to have gone ok – no problems so far. I moved out on Thursday afternoon. I worry that I should be a more threatening landlord but all the messages exchanged between myself and the tenants have had a x at the end. I do like them. I hope they don’t mess me around. So I’m back at Mum and Dad’s (thank you mum and dad). I don’t feel a very productive member of the household though I am on Dishwasher Unstacking Duty. And I very generously offered them a glass of (their) wine yesterday. Dad insisted the next glass was on him.

Right, I should be studying. I’m really over Day Skipping. Wish me luck/a miracle on my exams.